Helen Priscilla Crabb (24 November 1891 – 5 March 1972), also known as Helen Barc, was a New Zealand artist and art teacher, known for her expressive pen and ink drawings of people and animals.
Life and career
She was born in
Halcombe
Halcombe is a small settlement in the Manawatū-Whanganui region of the North Island, New Zealand. It is situated 13 km north west of Feilding and 4 km east of the Rangitikei River, between State Highway 1 and State Highway 54.
Hal ...
,
Manawatu/Horowhenua, New Zealand on 24 November 1891. She was the eldest of six children of
Priscilla Crabb
Priscilla Crabb ( Kennedy; 1 December 1864 – 27 June 1931) was a New Zealand Temperance movement, temperance activist and community leader. For over a decade, she was a vice president of the Women's Christian Temperance Union New Zealand, ...
(1864–1931) and Ernest Hugh Crabb (1867–1931).
The judge
Lance Tompkins, father of judge
David Tompkins, was her nephew.
Crabb attended
Wanganui Girls' College. After moving to
Palmerston North with her family, she took evening classes in art and sculpture at the Palmerston North Technical School. In 1913 she moved to Sydney to attend the
Sydney Art School where she studied under
Julian Ashton
Julian Rossi Ashton (27 January 185127 April 1942) was an English-born Australian artist and teacher. He is best known for founding the Julian Ashton Art School in Sydney and encouraging Australian painters to capture local life and scenery '' ...
.
In 1916 she moved to England where she attended the
Royal College of Art, joined the
Women's Royal Voluntary Service
The Royal Voluntary Service (known as the Women's Voluntary Services (WVS) from 1938 to 1966; Women's Royal Voluntary Service (WRVS) from 1966 to 2004 and WRVS from 2004 to 2013) is a voluntary organisation concerned with helping people in need ...
, and spent time serving in wartime occupations. In 1920 she moved back to Sydney where she continued studying at the Sydney Art School.
From 1923 to 1930 she worked as an art teacher at the
Presbyterian Ladies' College, and later worked at other schools and undertook part-time work including journalism.
She continued to practice her own art and often exhibited with the
Sydney Society of Artists.
After returning to New Zealand in 1943, she moved to
Wellington and adopted the surname Barc, which was "Crab" spelled backwards, and took on arts students.
Her pupils included
Betty Clegg
Betty Clare Clegg ( Reeve, 24 March 1926 – 13 October 2009) was a New Zealand watercolour artist. Her work is held in the permanent collection of Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa.
Biography
Clegg was born in Wellington on 24 March 19 ...
,
Avis Higgs
Avis Winifred Higgs (21 September 1918 – 14 October 2016) was a New Zealand textile designer and painter.
Education
Higgs was born in 1918 in Wellington into a family of artists. Both her great grandfather and her grandfather were highly re ...
and
Elva Bett
Elva Lilian Bett (née Brown, 30 March 1918 – 6 December 2016) was a New Zealand artist, art historian and art gallery director. Her work is held in the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa.
Biography
Bett was born Elva Lilian Brown in D ...
.
She exhibited regularly at the
New Zealand Academy of Fine Arts
The New Zealand Academy of Fine Arts (also referred to as the Wellington Art Society) was founded in Wellington in July 1882 as The Fine Arts Association of New Zealand. Founding artists included painters William Beetham (first president of the Ass ...
, and wrote articles for the ''
New Zealand Listener
The ''New Zealand Listener'' is a weekly New Zealand magazine that covers the political, cultural and literary life of New Zealand by featuring a variety of topics, including current events, politics, social issues, health, technology, arts, f ...
'' and ''Art in New Zealand'' magazines.
In 1949 she held a joint exhibition with
Evelyn Page
Evelyn Margaret Page (née Polson, 23 April 1899 – 28 May 1988) was a New Zealand artist. Her career covered seven decades, and her main areas of interest were landscapes, portraits, still lifes and nudes.
Early life
Page was born in C ...
,
Cedric Savage,
Helen Stewart and other well-known New Zealand artists.
She painted in
watercolour at the start of her career but later worked in pen and ink and occasionally oil.
The ''
Dictionary of New Zealand Biography'' says of her work:
In 1959 after receiving an inheritance she returned to Australia, attended the
Hobart Technical College TasTAFE is a Tasmanian tertiary education body of the Australian state-based Technical and Further Education system run by the Tasmanian State Government. The main campuses are located at Hobart, Warrane, Claremont, Glenorchy, Launceston, Alanv ...
for two years and continued to live and work in
Hobart
Hobart ( ; Nuennonne/Palawa kani: ''nipaluna'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian island state of Tasmania. Home to almost half of all Tasmanians, it is the least-populated Australian state capital city, and second-small ...
until 1969, when she returned to New Zealand. She died in
Wellington Hospital Wellington Hospital might refer to:
* Wellington Hospital, New Zealand, a hospital in Wellington, New Zealand
* Wellington Hospital, London
The Wellington Hospital in St John's Wood, London is the largest private hospital in the United Kingdom, an ...
on 5 March 1972.
References
Further reading
*
External links
Online collectionat
Te Papa
{{DEFAULTSORT:Crabb, Helen
1891 births
1972 deaths
People from Halcombe
20th-century New Zealand women artists
21st-century New Zealand women artists
20th-century New Zealand painters
21st-century New Zealand painters
New Zealand art teachers